A network concentrator contains a plurality of modules connecting together a plurality of stations. These modules can be roughly divided into management modules and communication or media modules. The media modules connect to links which in turn connect to individual stations or to other concentrators. The management modules control the operation of the media modules and the interaction between the communication modules.
A media modules perform the actual transferring of data in a computer network. Data received on one link of a concentrator can be sent out on another link of a concentrator in order to transfer data between two stations in a computer network. A network concentrator can have a plurality of media modules, and each media module can have one or more ports for connecting to one or more links. Data can enter into a media module on one port, and then be sent out on another port of the same media module, or the media module can send that data to the backplane of a concentrator where the data is sent to another media module, and then the data is sent out on a port of the another media module. The media modules have a switch engine which analyzes incoming data and determines if the data should be sent out on one of the other ports of a media module, or be placed onto the backplane of the concentrator. The switch engine of a media module also listens to the backplane, and determines if any of the data on the backplane should be received and forwarded to one of the ports of the respective media module.
As the number of stations connected together in a computer network grows, as computer applications grow to transfer larger and larger amounts of data, such as audio and video, and as computer networks spread physically further apart, there is a great need for a single link to transfer data at very high rates.
The present invention anticipates that hundreds, maybe thousands of users at one location will want to exchange data, especially audio and video data with hundreds or possibly thousands of users at another location spaced relatively far from the first location. The high data rates needed to timely transfer the information from one location to another will require fast processing of the data at each location to deliver the data to its proper station. The high data rate possible over links between two locations is often much higher than economically possible data processing rates at each end of the link.